We’ve known that the HTC Inspire 4G hardware supports HSUPA, but without the feature turned-on in software, the phone hasn’t been able to reach 4G-caliber speeds on AT&T’s network. This isn’t an exclusive problem to the Inspire, with other Android models suffering the same fate. We had heard that AT&T was working on finally activating high-speed uploads for these models, but so far there hasn’t been any evidence to suggest progress. Now HTC has made an FCC filing signaling that the Inspire 4G will receive a software update to enable the eagerly-awaited HSUPA.

HTC filed the notice on March 8, but no timetable is presented for when a release is planned. Presumably, AT&T has the code by now, but the carrier may be waiting to bring all its 4G-capable phones up to speed at the same time. The Atrix certainly has its own set of software issues to worry about, with its voice call problems, so if its HSUPA isn’t a high priority, we hope that AT&T would let the Inspire update out on its own.

Hopefully upcoming AT&T 4G phones will ship with all their radio features enabled from the get-go, letting us avoid this kind of situation in the future.